The Intro

Before becoming another hit musical for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Evita, their story of former Argentine First Lady Eva Perón, was a concept album. Such was its immediate popularity, this song, performed by singer and actress Julie Covington went all the way to the top. Despite the long-term success of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s music through the decades, few of their songs have stayed in the public consciousness. This one definitely has.

Before

Lloyd Webber and Rice first met in 1965. The former was a 17-year-old composer, the latter a 20-year-old aspiring pop songwriter. Their first work together was The Likes of Us, a musical based on the life of Thomas John Barnardo. They produced a demo in 1966, but it wouldn’t be performed in public until 2005. Their first performed work is one of their most famous – Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1968. Jesus Christ Superstar followed. The hugely successful rock opera began life as a concept album in 1970 and Lloyd Webber and Rice decided to repeat this formula with their next project, Evita, based on the life of Perón, the second wife of Argentine leader Juan Perón. The idea originated when Rice listened to a Radio 4 documentary about Perón’s wife.

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina appears at the opening of the first and second acts and near the end of the show. They selected an all-star cast of British pop stars in the LP’s cast, including former Manfred Mann members Paul Jones and Mike d’Abo, Mike Smith from the Dave Clark Five, Barbara Dickson and singer and actress Julie Covington in the lead role.

Covington, a Londoner, was born 11 September 1946. She attended Brondesbury and Kilburn High School, where she began acting. She took part in two Edinburgh festivals and won the first ever Edinburgh Festival Fringe Best Actress Award. Her career in singing began with performing material by Pete Arkin and Clive James after joining the Footlights while at teachers’ training college in Cambridge. In 1967, while studying at Homerton College, Cambridge, she was invited to appear on The Frost Report. This earned her a recording contract with Columbia Records and she released her debut album, While the Music Lasts.

Covington’s career went from strength to strength throughout the 70s. She starred in the musical Godspell alongside fellow number 1 artist David Essex in 1971. Two years later she starred as Janet Weiss in the original production of The Rocky Horror Show. For the next few years she appeared on Play Away and regularly as part of the National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre. Lloyd-Webber saw her performing in cabaret one night in 1976, and recognised her from her role in acclaimed ITV musical drama Rock Follies. This series, following the exploits of a female rock band called The Little Ladies, won multiple BAFTAs, and the punk band Buzzcocks got their name from a Time Out review of the series with the headline ‘It’s the buzz, cocks!’, which was a reference to Covington’s character Dee. With her short cropped hair, Covington even resembled a punk at the time. She was intrigued by the idea of Evita, wondering how on earth Lloyd Webber and Rice could make a commercial musical out of Perón’s life.

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina was among the first, piano-only, demos for Evita. Despite reticence that they weren’t going to sell many records, MCA agreed to release the album, and the cast began recording the album at Olympic Studios in 1975. The completed version of this single featured Johnny Kidd and The Pirates’ guitarist Joe Moretti, plus Simon Phillips on drums, Mo Foster on bass, Ray Russell on guitars, Anne Odell on keyboards, David Snell on harp and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As it came to completing the album, Lloyd Webber and Rice couldn’t decide on the song’s title, flitting between It’s Only Your Lover Returning and All Through My Crazy and Wild Days, amid fears that mentioning Argentina may reduce commercial appeal. Shortly before the LP was mixed, Lloyd Webber suggested the line ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ was a good fit. It originated from an epitaph on a plaque at Perón’s grave in the La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

Review

Stirring, stately strings set the tone as the song begins. We are to picture Covington as Evita, addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Casa Rosada. It’s a powerful performance from Covington, full of nuance, sometimes gentle and hesitant in the opening, other times defiant. It’s as complex a rendition as Rice’s lyrics, which I’ll be honest, took some researching. I’ve said before on this blog that most musicals just leave me cold, and I’ve never seen or heard Evita, nor do I know much about the history behind Perón’s story.

All this can’t help but affect my enjoyment of this number 1, which is highly regarded by so many. But for that reason I tried to appreciate it more this time around, and I could. A classy rendition of a complex, mature moment in pop. I’d still never seek it out otherwise though.

After

Although Covington totally owned her role on the LP, playing the part of a hard-right political leader didn’t sit comfortably with her. She had wanted the song to remain tucked away on the album and turned down planned TV appearances, including Top of the Pops, resulting in a montage of images of Perón as a promo video. When Radio 1 refused to add it to their playlists, Lloyd Webber and Rice thought it would sink. But the BBC changed its mind eventually and it helped push the song up the charts. When Don’t Cry for Me Argentina reached number 1, Covington was in the audience on Top of the Pops.

Lloyd Webber and Rice won the Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically with their number 1 later in the year. Naturally they asked Covington to reprise her role when planning the stage show of Evita, but were likely unsurprised when she declined. The part went to Elaine Page instead. In 1982 the song took on a whole new meaning due to the Falklands War, and when the UK was victorious, the song was heard in many pubs, sung sarcastically by gloating Brits. The BBC refused to play the former number 1 during the conflict and it was also banned in the Philippines during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, as the life of his wife Imelda was said to mirror Perón’s.

The Outro

When the stage version of Evita opened, Covington had moved on, starring in the English National Opera’s version of The Seven Deadly Sins. That year, 1978, was a big one for Covington, as she also performed the role of Beth in Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. She also peaked at number 12 with a cover of Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed, taken from her eponymous album. It was her first LP in seven years and also her last. After that, she notably appeared in the 1982 National Theatre production of Guys and Dolls and has mostly disappeared from the public eye since.

The Info

Written & produced by

Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice

Weeks at number 1

1 (12-18 February)

Trivia

Births

18 February: Triathlete Chrissie Wellington

Meanwhile…

13 February: Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland has a massive stroke. He does not regain consciousness and dies six years later in hospital.

15 February: The very first Aardman Animations character, Morph, is introduced on BBC children’s TV series Take Hart, hosted by Tony Hart.